Hans Jörgen Hammer

Italian Wine Cellar

c. 1860

In this neoclassical oil on canvas signed and dated “Otto Bache 1864”, the artist depicts Psyche standing with her back turned to the viewer beside a red draped table. Her hair is arranged in a tight knot, secured with a hairpin adorned with two large pearls. She holds a light drapery that covers her legs, while the rest of her body remains nude. With her head turned toward the right, she gazes downward toward the table, where a blue gown or drapery lies, the garment she is about to put on. Her softly illuminated profile emerges as she turns in the light falling from the upper left, creating a striking backlight that heightens the contrast along the contours of her body. On the richly red draped table before her rest her jewellery and, to her left, a large amphora-shaped jug and a tazza bowl. The light descending from above to the left defines the composition with sharp contrasts between brightness and shadow, revealing the delicate modelling of Psyche’s form and lending the scene a quiet sense of introspection and grace. Exhibited: Winkel & Magnussen October 1915 no. 5, ill. p. 5. Otto Bache was born in 1839 in Roskilde, Denmark, and died in 1927 in Copenhagen. At the age of only eleven he was admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen where he studied drawing and painting under the supervision of artists such as Wilhelm Marstrand. His early training gave him a basis in the Danish “Golden Age” tradition of realism and naturalism, but he went on to travel and extend his horizons. In 1866 he received an Academy travel-scholarship and went to Paris, then Italy (1867–68). The influence of Paris is often noted: his palette became richer, his handling freer, his light stronger, and his subjects broader. Later in his career, from around 1887, he held the post as professor and on various occasions director of the Royal Danish Academy. Bache’s early work reflects his rigorous academic training: careful drawing, subdued palette and interest in genre scenes and rural life. After his travel in Paris and Italy he adopted a somewhat more robust handling of color and light, but still remained essentially realist and narrative in approach. He painted portraits, animal and hunting subjects, genre scenes, and large history-paintings depicting key moments from Danish history. In particular, during the 1880s and 1890s when he was commissioned to execute large history canvases for the Museum of National History at Frederiksborg Castle and similar institutions, depicting events such as the exploits of Danish soldiers...

A Venetian capriccio view with classical architectural ruins and in the background the church of San Giorgio Maggiore and the Church of Santa Maria della Salute next to the Grand Can...